Journey of Faith—RCIA
RCIA will meet on Monday, 29th January and is specifically for those who are not Catholics but who are enquiring with a view to finding out more about the Catholic Faith and Reception into the Church. These evenings begin at 8pm, are held in the St Clement Room of the Parish Centre (the door is beside the Memorial Garden) and usually last just over an hour. Names may be given in advance to Fr Kevin or the Parish Office.
Deputy Head & Headteacher posts in Diocesan Primary schools
Headteacher – St Helen’s Primary School, Westcliff-on-Sea
Deadline for applications: 9:00 am, Friday 2nd February 2024
Headteacher – St Joseph’s Primary School, Canvey Island
Deadline for applications: 12:00 pm, Wednesday 7th February 2024
Headteacher – St Patrick’s Primary School, Collier Row
Deadline for applications: 12:00 (noon), Monday 12th February 2024
St Helen's Catholic Primary School Teaching Assistant Vacancy
St. Helen’s Catholic Primary School are seeking to appoint a Teaching Assistant to join our friendly team. This will be a 1 year temporary contract to cover maternity. Please see our website for full details or contact Mrs Sears on 01702 343823.
Vocations
The next “Enquirers’ Evening” for those considering or interested in a vocation to the priesthood is on Tuesday, 6th February at Brentwood Cathedral. The speaker will be Deacon Matúš Meleg who is training for the priesthood for our Diocese.
For further information please contact Fr Mark Swires vocprom@dioceseofbrentwood.org
Little Company of Mary, 11-13 Grosvenor Road, Westcliff
We are recruiting for a maintenance person with good all-round DIY skills. Basic knowledge of electrical, heating, plumbing and hot & cold water service installations is required, with the ability to undertake all general and statutory maintenance checks on the various installations.
Previous experience in a similar role is desirable, preferably in a Care Home environment.
The successful candidate must have a good standard of record keeping and be able to work unsupervised.
Hours: 16 hours over 4 days (to be agreed)
Please submit your application to: lcm.ef@btinternet.com
Parish Pilgrimage to Lourdes-Monday 22nd to Saturday 27th July
The parishes of Leigh-on-Sea, Southend & Prittlewell are considering a joint trip to participate in the Brentwood Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes. As in previous years, we will fly with British Airways from Heathrow to Toulouse.
We are currently gauging the interest within our parish community. The package price will be finalised and communicated before the end of January. Please be informed that single rooms will be limited this year.
Please register your interest before 25th January. Please register your details (name, number of seats required, a contact number & an email address) with the Parish Office. Online booking forms will be available from 1st February 2023. Limited places available!
Sacrament of Confirmation
This will take place on Pentecost Sunday, 19th May, 2024. Any adult or young adult (who must have reached the age of fourteen by 1st September 2023) may apply. Please send an email with your name and contact details to mrscatherineharris@gmail.com by Ash Wednesday, 14th February, 2024.
World Day of Prayer
This year’s World Day of Prayer Service takes place on Friday 1st March at 10.30am. at Avenue Baptist church, Milton Road, Westcliff-On-Sea SS0 7JX followed by tea/coffee. Car parking is available at North Road and Cliffs Pavilion car parks.
This years’ service is prepared by the women of Palestine on the theme “I beg you, bear with one another in love”.. We are very fortunate to have the children from St Helen's primary school to take an active part in the service. We invite everyone to join us in praying for peace in the Holy Land.
Pilgrimage to Knock
Escorted Tour to Westport, Knock & Co Mayo, 7th April 2024. £899.00 pps. Price includes flight, 10kg hold luggage, 5 nights’ in 4* Castlecourt Hotel, Westport with Dinner, Bed & Breakfast. Lunch on three days. All entertainment, excursions and transport included. Visit Knock, Galway City, Kylemore Abbey, Croagh Patrick & Ashford Castle. Single supplement on Enquiry. Contact Patricia or Natali on 01268 762 278 or 07740 175557 or email knockpilgrimages@gmail.com.
BIN A TIN FOR VIN
The St Vincent Centre is doing wonderful work in Southend helping the poorest amongst us.
You can help the food bank there by bringing a tin of something with you when you come to mass and putting it in VINNIE'S BIN, which will be in the OLD BAPTISTERY.
This will be emptied twice weekly.
St. Vincent de Paul Society(SVP), Our Lady of Lourdes & St. Joseph
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Dear friends in Christ
The Gospel at Mass this Sunday tells of the calling of the first Apostles: Peter, Andrew, James and John.
Dear friends in Christ
The Gospel at Mass this Sunday tells of the calling of the first Apostles: Peter, Andrew, James and John. They were fishermen and they left their nets the moment Jesus asked them to follow Him. Although this will strike us as dramatic, but as Jesus was such an attractive Person, that call would have been irresistible. Leaving their nets behind was a sign of their willingness to leave everything in order to be with Jesus. It speaks to us of the detachment necessary from anything which would inhibit our intimate relationship with Jesus and our close following of Him. Christian detachment has nothing to do with disdain for material goods, if they are acquired and used in accordance with God’s will. Rather it is to do with making the counsel of Our Lord a reality in our own lives: Seek first the Kingdom of God…and all these things will be given to you as well. If we seek God first, in and through all things and everyone, then He will also provide us with what is necessary for life on earth. If we have to speak of sacrifice, this is only so that we can be more detached from the world and attached to Jesus. The objective of the Christian life is not to accumulate more and more things, but to love Christ more and more. We might recall the sensitive and balanced words of the Advent Collect, which beautifully expresses this attitude, and makes us realise that we do not have to deny any of these worldly goods in order to live well here on earth: May these mysteries, O Lord, profit us we pray, for even now, as we walk amid passing things, You teach us by them to love the things of Heaven, and hold fast to what endures.
May God bless you!
Msgr Kevin Hale
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Liturgy:
Readings of Year B
The Nicene Creed
Preface Sunday 2
Saturday 20
St Fabian, P, M
5.30pm Vigil Mass Fr James Anthony Boyle, MHM, RIP (AT)
6.30-7.30pm: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confessions
Sunday 21 January
Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
8am Mass Frances Emmerson, RIP (Anniv) (AE)
9.30am Mass The People of the Parish
11.30am Mass Ernie Cotgrove, RIP (AMcC)
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
Monday 22
St Vincent, De, M
9am Mass Richard, Cynthia & John Sparrow, RIP Anniv (M-CS)
Tuesday 23
Feria
9am Mass Intentions of Rose D’Souza
Wednesday 24
St Francis de Sales, Bp, D
9am Mass Alan Bush, RIP (CB)
Thursday 25
The Conversion of St Paul, Ap
9am Mass Joan Hartley, RIP (MR)
Friday 26
Ss Timothy & Titus, App
12Noon Mass Intentions of Joan McCarthy (RO’C)
Saturday 27
St Angela Merici, V
10am Mass Intentions of Tony Huish (MR)
10.30-11.30am: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confessions
5.30pm Vigil Mass Clement Cecil Moise, RIP (LB)
6.30-7.30pm: Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament & Confessions
Sunday 28 January
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
8am Mass Intentions of Margaret Huish (MR)
9.30am Mass The People of the Parish
11.30am Mass Mark Solecki, RIP (Anniv) (IS)
5.30pm Vespers & Benediction
We Pray for the Dead on their Anniversaries
Bp Bernard Ward, Fr Christopher Quirke, Pope Benedict XV, Bp Arthur Doubleday, Fr John O’Sullivan, Fr John Hibbert, Fr Alfred Field, Bp Patrick Casey, Hubert A. Conolly, Jimmy Baker, Catherine Morris, Frances May Emmerson, John Mansfield, Charles Paterson, Christine Wise, Rose Nice, Isabel King, Conor Hartley-Anderson, Doreen Troughton, Mary Vermeulen, John Dillon, T. Fitzpatrick, Mary Lilian Clarke, Ellen Rose Brooks, Sarah Mann, William Hands, Barbara Sheaf, Kathleen Cooke, Phylis Faulkner, Ida Wallace, Bridget McGrath, Huguette Farrelly, Gloria Fletcher, John McCarthy, Vera Plummer, May Fazio, Elsie Terrell, Phyllis Collins, Michael MacDermott & Gloria Dickens.
We Pray for our Sick
Danielle Osborne, Valerie Quinn, Tony Bullock, Michael Doherty, Carol Emerson, Kitty Lydon, Isabel Coombs, Lucy Moreno, Jose Luis Lira, Richard Poole, Pamela Uglietti, Michael Mapson, Deana Ince, Susan Griffin, Gy Rampersaud, Mary O’Sullivan, Ian Spacie, Bobby Newman, Paul Watts, Christine Reid, Rose D’Souza, Jimmy & Pauline Martin, James Fegan, David Lesley, Zach Stokes, Andrew Stokes, Noel Conroy, Marjorie Jay, Paul Sutton, John Murphy, Jennifer Biebuyck, Moira Scott, Jill Yates, Leonora Maguire, Brian Mountier, Renata Butler, Margaret Bartle, Tony Downey, Kristy Monferrari, Fred Ring, Russell Short, Marie Kharas, Garry Pearman, Patricia Ann Darroch, Patricia Vanner, Amy Louise Fox, Sarah Savage, Bill O’Connell, Charlotte O’Neil, Ella Williams, David Kislingbury, Mark Shepherd, Breege McCaffrey, Mark Hartley, John Lavery, Paul Keane, Rosemary Bragard, Pat Lynch, Ben Wilson, Christian Ryan, Tina Doveaston, Addi Brady, Patricia Fleming, Nicky Wigmore, Rose Craft, Patricia Spikin, Sandra Fagan, Edna Wallace, Beryl Dixon, Nick Evans, Vicky Jack, Mary Boyce, Kristin Hallenga, Anne O’Neill, Cheryl Shallis, Justin Stark, Sheila Netherton, David Blyth, Janet Woods, Lynne Hilkene, June Moncaster, Laura & Anne Breen, Breda Lynch, Maria Clark, Roy Widdecombe, Johanna Lynch, Anthony King, Norma McCleverty, Belinda Balazsi, Johnny Poole, Edward Martin, Joanna Luciani, Pauline Wilsher, Simon Marshall, Kriston Barnes, Hugh Isaacs, Dawn Deleigh, Lorraine Hart, Linda Dean, Georgina Cornwell, Antonella McConalogue, Sharon Levill, Annie Holland, Ivor & Joanne Knight, Brian Beresford, Rebecca Peake, Connor Bourke, Mattia Mollica, Bernadette Lane, Irena Solecki, Ianto Bellis, Marguerite Harris, Andrew Exley, Elizabeth McConalogue, Kean Smith, Keith Maliff, Bradley, Florence Hownam & children: Thomas Ball, Liam Davis, Connie Price, Albert Chambers, Fergus Grant, Mary Isherwood, Lucy Price, Frazer Gregory & baby Forest Gallagher.
Please pray for the repose of the souls of
ANTHONY SANSOM who died peacefully at home on Friday, 22nd December. His body will be received into the church on Tuesday, 6th February at 4.30pm and his Requiem Mass will take place on Wednesday, 7th February at 10.30am followed by committal at Southend Crematorium.
BERNADETTE LANE Her body will be received into the church on Tuesday, 20th February at 4.30pm and her Requiem Mass will take place on Wednesday, 21st February at 10am followed by committal at Basildon Crematorium.
BRIDGET WARD who died on Thursday, 11th January.
ISABEL COOMBS who died on Wednesday, 17th January.
FR JOHN McKEON who died on 17th January.
Requiescant in pace
Responsorial Psalm at 11.30am Mass
Prelude: Ave Maria—Jacques Arcadelt (c.1525)
Postlude: Et in terra pax—Francois Couperin (1668-1733)
Dates for your Diary
Monday 22nd January—Journey in Faith (RCIA) continues—8pm St Clement Room
Saturday 10th February—Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes (transferred)—10am Solemn Mass
Thursdays: February 15th, 22nd, 29th & March 7th, 14th & 21st—'The Chosen’ 7pm Parish Centre
Wednesdays: February 21st, 28th, & March 13th & 20th;
Lenten Evenings of Reflection—7-8.30pm
Saturdays 11th & 18th May—First Holy Communion Masses
Sunday 19th May—Sacrament of Confirmation
Saturday 6th July—Flower Festival
Monday 22nd—Saturday 27th July 2024—Parish Pilgrimage to Lourdes
THE CHOSEN—showing in the Parish during Lent
The Chosen is a groundbreaking historical drama based on the life of Jesus Christ, seen through the eyes of those who knew him. Set against the backdrop of Roman oppression in first-century Israel, the drama shares an authentic and intimate look at Jesus’ revolutionary life and teachings.
Six of the episodes of this Gospel depiction will be screened in the Parish Centre on the Thursdays of Lent, beginning on 15th February at 7pm; each episode lasts one hour.